7 reasons visual storytelling is one of 2012’s breakout trends

Businesses of all sizes are relying more and more upon visualization of data and information to make concepts easier for people to digest and remember, but why is this trend surging in marketing and tech circles?

The rise of visualizations

You’ve seen infographics on websites, embedded SlideShare presentations, illustrated videos, and more, that give consumers a way to consume data more concisely and in a more memorable way. Visual storytelling is compelling and the art and technology supporting the trend are improving, as are the standards and expectations of consumers.

Jason Amunwa at SlideDeck 2 tells AGBeat that “though it’s early in 2012, the importance – and necessity of visual storytelling is already one of the year’s breakout trends.”

According to Amunwa, below are the seven reasons that visualization is a breakout trend:

A Better Experience for Users is Essential. A bad experience can leave a sour taste in a user’s mouth, but a good experience will keep them coming back for more. More and more brands are picking up on this: i.e.: Spotify, Instagram, etc.

Social Media Is Becoming More Visual. From Facebook Timeline, to the sale of Instagram, to the immense growth of Pinterest, people are more interested in using photos to show their stories rather than tell them using 140-characters or less.

Apps Have Changed Our Expectations. App design has spoiled us because now we’re expecting that seamlessly beautiful experience from everything we interact with. As a result, “app design” is forcing web-based designers to be more innovative and creative.

Multi-Resolution Viewing Is Becoming Standard. In the early Internet, everyone was using the same type of browser and getting the same web experience. Nowadays, everyone has a smart phone or a laptop or a tablet. There are multitudes of different devices an individual could be using to view a webpage – and it’s up to the designers to account for that.

Minimalist Designs Are Getting More Done With Less. Whether it’s a business site like Simple.com or a blogging platform like Tumblr, using visuals to create minimalist designs that convey only the essential information is making the web more responsive for users. Sites that are clean and simple to use allow users to do what they need to do in a fast, responsive, and intuitive way, thus producing higher satisfaction and loyalty.

Special Effects Adding “Wow” Factor. Advances in web technologies have given designers the freedom to break away from archaic, newspaper-like navigation and explore new realms of possibility. As we mentioned earlier, apps have changed people’s expectations. As they’ve gotten used to slick app interfaces they also expect the same from their web experiences.

Visuals are Universal. The Internet is a place that is constantly changing, as is the language used to talk about it. However, visuals are a universal language that can withstand the tests of time. Visuals are capable of evoking emotional connections in a broader audience of people while words can limit the scope of where a message can go and who can understand it.

There are many methods being used to visualize content, like Amunwa’s team at SlideDeck 2. Social networks like Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram are forcing brands to think and act more visually. With that in mind, digital-telepathy, the company behind the original SlideDeck and the Hello Bar, designed SlideDeck 2: a simple way for websites to showcase social and web content in a visually stunning way through an easy-to-use premium WordPress plugin. SlideDeck 2 is a dynamic content slider that brings a new aesthetic to website design.

Instead of forcing website managers to create content from scratch or reformat what they’ve already shared via social media, SlideDeck 2 automatically pulls in content to show on WordPress-powered sites. It integrates with Instagram, Flickr, Vimeo, Google+, Dribbble, YouTube, Twitter, Dailymotion, Picassa and RSS feeds. As a design company, digital-telepathy is focused on the beautification of the web. By adding a new layer of design to content sharing, SlideDeck 2 is a major step forward in helping brands easily make their content visually appealing.

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Can you legally monitor your employees’ online activities? Kinda

Edward Snowden’s infamous info leak in 2013 brought to light the scope of surveillance measures, raising questions about legality of monitoring tactics. However, the breach also opened up broader discussion on best practices for protecting sensitive data.

No company wants to end up with a data breach situation on their hands, but businesses need to be careful when implementing monitoring systems to prevent data loss.

Monitoring your employee’s activity online can be a crucial part of safeguarding proprietary data. However, many legal risks are present when implementing data loss prevention (DLP) methods.

DLP tools like keystroke logging, natural language processing, and network traffic monitoring are all subject to federal and state privacy laws. Before putting any DLP solutions in place, companies need to assess privacy impact and legal risks.

First, identify your monitoring needs. Different laws apply to tracking data in transit versus data at rest. Data in transit is any data moving through a network, like sending an email. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) requires consent for tracking any data in transit.

Data at rest is anything relatively immobile, like information stored in a database or archives. Collecting data at rest can fall under the Stored Communications Act (SCA), which typically prohibits unauthorized access or disclosure of electronic communications.

While the SCA does not usually prevent employers from accessing their own systems, monitoring things like Gmail accounts could get messy without proper authorization.

Who you’re tracking matters as well regarding consent and prior notification. If you’re just monitoring your own employees, you may run into disclosure issues. Some states, like Delaware and Connecticut, prohibit employee monitoring without prior notice.

The ECPA also generally prohibits tracking electronic communication, but exceptions are granted for legitimate business purposes so long as consent is obtained.

Monitoring third party communications can get tricky with wiretapping laws. In California and Illinois, all parties must be notified of any tracking. This can involve disclosures on email signatures from outbound employee emails, or a broad notification on the company’s site.

Implied consent comes from third parties continuing communication even with disclaimers present.

If you’re wanting to install DLP software on personal devices used for work, like a company cellphone, you could face a series of fines for not gaining authorization. Incorrect implementation may fall under spyware and computer crime laws.

With any DLP tools and data monitoring, notification and consent are crucial. When planning monitoring, first assess what your privacy needs are, then identify potential risks of implementing any tracking programs.

Define who, where, and why DLP software will apply, and make sure every employee understands the need for tracking. Include consent in employee onboarding, and keep employees updated with changes to your monitoring tactics.

Protecting your company’s data is important, but make sure you’re not unintentionally bending privacy laws with your data loss prevention methods. Regularly check up on your approaches to make sure everything is in compliance with monitoring laws.

What you need to know about Facebook’s collaborative stories

If you’re like me, you’ve never posted a story on Facebook. Many of you probably don’t even realize that Facebook got in the story game last year in an effort to compete with Snapchat and (sort of, maybe?) Instagram (even though they own it). Facebook is doing its best to change that by creating a more robust story experience that they hope will expand the networking possibilities of the already abundantly popular site.

Stories on Facebook seemed like a bit of a headscratcher at first, it seems like everyone has had enough story experience between their Snapchat and Instagram accounts, but according to Facebook, they plan on surpassing Snapchat’s capabilities by adding a number of features to boost usage.

Users of Facebook Groups and Events can now contribute to a Facebook story exclusive to the group’s members and can be controlled by admins. Their idea is that this could add excitement and momentum for social meetups, weddings, or parties. These collaborative stories will function similar to a hashtag, only it will be accessible only by those involved in the event or group.

While Snapchat has a group feature, you have to add members like a group chat, where Facebook’s idea gives the story feature a more open-ended scope that reaches a large amount of people where exclusivity is optional, rather than the purpose. Facebook is enabling groups based on hobbies, professions, locations, and ideologies to create their own niche content where you can go to blow off some steam or connect with people who love the same things you do.

Just think, you’ve always wanted to post a video into the Riverdale Facebook page arguing over Archie’s real age, now you can rant away without typing a word! Rather than spar with words, you can pontificate about Game of Thrones theories with all the gusto you can muster, emotions and all!

What was once lost in text will be lost no more.

Facebook will be giving page admins ultimate control over what gets posted or not, similar to how a page’s News Feed currently works. To encourage posting, Facebook has moved a bubble to the top of every event page for easy access.

Proving that they are serious about the future of collaborative stories, Facebook is working on integrating stories across the app instead of just throwing it in as a half-hearted extra for you to roll your eyes at. With Stories’ new abilities, users will be able to hit different groups and encourage sharing opportunities unavailable to Snapchat users. Rather than just liking or sharing a post you like, you’ll be able to share your opinion on the spot. Whether or not that’s a good thing is yet to be seen (troll on trollers!).

Facebook wants your nudes now to protect you from revenge porn later

In a heroic and totally innovative attempt to combat revenge porn, Facebook has come up with the following solution: “PM US UR NUDEZ.”

No seriously. They want your nudes.

But don’t worry, they’re only going to be viewed by a small group of people for manual confirmation of said nudes, and then stored temporarily… for reasons.

That part gets a little fuzzy. Some sources report that Facebook isn’t actually storing the images, just the links. This is meant to convert the image to a digital footprint, known as a hash, which is supposed to prevent the content from being upload to Facebook again.

Others say Facebook only stores the images for a short period of time and then deletes them.

What we do know, is this is a new program being tested in Australia where Facebook has partnered with a small government agency known as e-Safety and is requesting intimate or nude photos that could potentially be used for revenge porn in an effort to pre-emptively prevent such an incident.

Revenge porn is basically when someone uploads your personal and private photos online without your consent. Rather than address the issue of whether or not it’s such a good idea to take photos on a mobile, hackable device, it’s better to just send a large corporation all your nudes… through their Messenger app. /sarcasm

For your protection.

According to the commissioner of the e-Safety office, Julie Inman Grant, however, they’re using artificial intelligence and photo-matching technologies… and storing the links!

If this isn’t convincing enough, British law firm Mishcon de Reya LLP wrote in a statement to Newsweek, “We would expect that Facebook has absolutely watertight systems to guard the privacy of victims. It is quite counter-intuitive to send such intimate images to an unknown recipient.”

Oh, she wasn’t joking.

I’m not sure how many people still hold onto old intimate photos of themselves, but I am doubtful that it’s enough for this to really be effective as it only prevents intimate photos from being shared on Facebook. At least that’s the plan.

Reactions to this announcement have largely been met with amusement and criticism ranging from commentary on Mark Zuckerberg and Co. being total pervs, and theories of shared Facebook memories: “”Happy Memories: It’s been 1 Year since you uploaded 47 pictures of you in your birthday suit”!

Either way, I can only imagine someone’s inbox is flooded with crotch shots right now, and Zuckerberg has a potential new industry in the works.